Tata Power is looking at overseas opportunities in transmission business as the domestic market at present offers limited scope for private participation in this segment, a top company official said
“At present, there is not much market for transmission and distribution in the country. We are a global company, so will continue to look at opportunities overseas with right type of risks,” Tata Power Managing Director Anil Sardana told PTI.
Tata Power forayed into the transmission sector by picking up a 51 per cent controlling stake in a 1,200-circuit km (high voltage 220 kv and 110 kv) Tala Transmission project.
The comments come on the heels of the company recently saying that it is on the lookout for external locations for generation as well as it is tired of the inordinate delays in project approvals, coupled with fuel supply shortage in the domestic market.
Tata Power, which has set a generation target of 26,000 MW by 2020, has shortlisted geographies, including Africa, Southeast Asia region, West Asia, the Far East starting from Indonesia, Vietnam, etc., for setting up power projects and is also looking at overseas for fuel resources.
The company now sources coal from four mines in Indonesia and two in Australia.
The Tala project is a joint venture between Tata Power and the state-run Power Grid Corporation.
The joint venture company, named Powerlinks Transmission, has been formed primarily to evacuate power from the Tala hydro project in Bhutan to carry surplus electricity from the country’s Northeastern states to the Northern region.
At present, PowerGrid is the major player in the transmission sector and is operating about 94,000 circuit km of transmission lines along with 154 sub-stations with a transformation capacity of over 1,31,000 mva (mega volt ampere).